Three-dimensional building management system visualization

• US 10,190,791 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2016
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crestron Electronics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Crestron Electronics Incorporated
• Inventors: Jacobson, Doug, Martinez, Michael, Rabkin, Boris
• Primary Examiner(s): Belousov, Andrey
• Application Number:
  US15/139,742
• Publication Number:
  US 20170315697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• Field of Search: 715215, 715738, 715757, 715848, 715850, 715852, 715853
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/523 for displaying temperature data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25011 Domotique, I-O bus, home automation, building automation
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00

Abstract

Systems, methods, and modes for on-demand rendering of a three-dimensional building management system visualization of a building. The system comprises a database configured for storing geometry elements and spatial elements. The geometry elements are mapped to spatial elements, wherein the geometry elements define three-dimensional geometrical representation of a building'"'"'s structure, and the spatial elements define three-dimensional representation of spaces in the building. The spatial elements are associated with respective space nodes that identify the spaces located within the building, and the space nodes are associated with respective electronic devices installed within the spaces in the building. The system further comprises at least one processor configured for selectively recalling the geometry elements and spatial elements from the database, and rendering a three dimensional building visualization of the building via a user interface, wherein the three-dimensional building visualization comprises a status information visualization of at least one electronic device.

Claims

1. A system for on-demand rendering of a three-dimensional building management system visualization of a building comprising:

a database configured for storing a geometry data file comprising geometry elements and a separate spatial data file comprising spatial elements, wherein the geometry elements define three-dimensional geometrical representation of a building'"'"'s structure, wherein the spatial elements define three-dimensional representation of spaces in the building, wherein the geometry elements are mapped to spatial elements, wherein the spatial elements are associated with respective space nodes that identify the spaces located within the building, wherein the space nodes are associated with respective electronic devices installed within the spaces in the building; and

at least one processor in communication with the one or more electronic devices comprising a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

selectively recalling the geometry data file comprising the geometry elements and the spatial data file comprising the spatial elements from the database; and

rendering a three dimensional building visualization of the building via a user interface, wherein the three-dimensional building visualization comprises a status information visualization of at least one electronic device;

wherein the user interface comprises;

a structure selection field which upon being selected is configured for recalling the geometry elements from the geometry data file and visibly rendering at least a portion of the geometry elements;

a spaces selection field which upon being selected is configured for recalling the spatial elements from the spatial data file and visibly rendering at least a portion of the spatial elements; and

a structure and spaces selection field which upon being selected is configured for recalling the geometry elements from the geometry data file and the spatial elements from the spatial data file and visibly rendering at least a portion of the geometry elements and at least a portion of the spatial elements.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the three dimensional building visualization is rendered via a web-browser.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

selectively visibly rendering the geometry elements and the spatial elements by setting their opacity to visible; and

selectively invisibly rendering the geometry elements and the spatial elements by setting their opacity level to invisible.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is further configured for storing a plurality of spatial structures each defining at least a portion of a floor of the building and associated with a group of horizontal aggregation of spatial elements, wherein the plurality of spatial structures are organized hierarchically from a bottom floor value to a top floor value.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the user interface is configured for receiving a request to render floor N, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for re-rendering the three dimensional building visualization to display substantially a plan view of the floor N.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface comprises an up floor selection, wherein the at least one processor receives a request to render floor N upon receiving a selection of the up floor selection, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

checking whether a floor counter is less than the top floor value;

when the floor counter is less than the top floor, incrementing the floor counter by 1 and re-rendering the three-dimensional building visualization to display a floor level corresponding to the incremented floor counter value; and

when the floor counter is not less than the top floor value, not re-rendering three-dimensional building visualization.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface comprises a down floor selection, wherein the at least one processor receives a request to render floor N upon receiving a selection of the down floor selection, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

checking whether a floor counter is greater than a bottom floor value;

when the floor counter is greater than the bottom floor value, decrementing the counter by 1 and re-rendering the three-dimensional building visualization showing a floor level corresponding to the floor counter value;

when the floor counter is not greater than the bottom floor value, not re-rendering three-dimensional building visualization.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for setting an opacity of a roof building object and geometry and spatial elements associated with floors located above floor N to invisible.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

receiving the request to render floor N;

identifying spatial elements associated with a spatial structure associated with floor N;

identifying geometry elements mapped to the identified spatial elements;

setting an opacity of at least one of the identified spatial elements and identified geometry elements to visible;

setting an opacity of a roof building object to invisible;

identifying spatial elements associated with floors located above floor N;

identifying geometry elements mapped to the identified spatial elements associated with the floors located above floor N;

setting an opacity of the identified spatial and geometry elements associated with the floors located above floor N to invisible; and

re-rendering the three dimensional building visualization.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface comprises a list of floor nodes each associated with a spatial structure, wherein the at least one processor receives a request to render floor N upon receiving a selection of a floor node from the list of floor nodes.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the user interface comprises a hierarchical tree data structure comprising a list of the space nodes organized in a tree topology under a list of floor nodes, wherein each floor node is associated with a spatial structure.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured for allowing a user to select a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization by clicking directly on the spatial element.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

in response to a user selecting a spatial element, modifying one or more properties of the selected spatial element.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more properties comprise the selected spatial element'"'"'s fill, volume, face, outline, shadow, color, pattern, pattern color, transparency, outline thickness, outline pattern, or any combinations thereof.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the user interface comprises a selectable tree structure comprising a selectable list space nodes, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

receiving a selection from a user of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

receiving a selection from the user of a space node from the selectable list of space nodes;

associating the selected spatial element and the selected space node; and

storing the association in the database.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

performing a discovery process to discover electronic devices connected to a local area network within the building;

displaying a list of the discovered electronic devices;

receiving a selection from a user of at least one electronic device from the list of electronic devices;

receiving a selection from a user of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

associating the selected at least one electronic device with a space node associated with the selected spatial element; and

storing the association in the database.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises:

a sensor blaster comprising a sensor trigger;

a plurality of electronic devices each comprising a sensor and configured for transmitting a sensor trigger signal in response to a trigger of the sensor using the sensor blaster;

wherein the at least one processor is further configured for;

performing a discovery process to discover electronic devices connected to a local area network within the building;

receiving a sensor trigger signal from an electronic device of the discovered electronic devices;

receiving a selection of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

associating the selected spatial element with the electronic device from which the sensor trigger signal was received; and

storing the association in the database.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

displaying a list of discovered electronic devices; and

visually indicating via the user interface from which electronic device the sensor trigger signal was received.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the sensor comprises a light sensor, an infrared sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) energy sensor, an ultrasonic sensors, a sound sensor, a microphone, or an ambient temperature sensor.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprises:

a plurality of electronic devices each comprising at least one commissioning mode button and configured for transmitting a button trigger signal in response to a trigger of the commissioning mode button;

wherein the at least one processor is further configured for;

performing a discovery process to discover electronic devices connected to a local area network within the building;

receiving a button trigger signal from an electronic device of the discovered electronic devices;

receiving a selection of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

associating the selected spatial element with the electronic device from which the button trigger signal was received; and

storing the association in the database.

21. The system of claim 13 wherein the modified one or more properties indicates a status of at least one electronic device associated with a space node associated with the selected spatial element.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

in response to a user selecting a spatial element, displaying a window comprising status information of at least one electronic device within the building associated with a space node associated with the selected spatial element.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the status information is at least one of an online status, help requests, error, light levels, occupancy, vacancy, daylight level, whether an electronic device is enabled or disabled, space reservation status, or any combinations thereof.

24. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

receiving a selection from a user of a spatial element from the three dimensional building visualization;

receiving a selection from the user of a control command;

identifying a least one electronic device of a space node associated with the selected spatial element; and

transmitting the selected control command to the identified at least one electronic device.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

modifying one or more properties of one or more of the spatial elements with status visualization by selectively recalling status information of at least one electronic device within the building using the space nodes.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the status information is visualized by modifying an appearance of the spatial element'"'"'s fill, volume, face, outline, shadow, color, pattern, pattern color, transparency, outline thickness, outline pattern, or any combinations thereof.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the status information comprises real-time status information, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

querying the at least one electronic device for real-time status information;

receiving the real-time status information; and

re-rendering the one or more spatial elements with status visualization representing the real-time status information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the real-time status information is re-rendered substantially continuously or periodically.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

comparing the received real-time status information to an immediately preceding received real-time status information;

determining whether the real-time status information has changed from the immediately preceding received status information;

re-rendering the one or more spatial elements when the real-time status information has changed; and

caching the real-time status information to be compared to a subsequently received real-time status information.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:

receiving status information of at least one electronic device within the building;

correlating the received status information with at least one space node using the association between each space node and the one or more electronic devices; and

rendering one or more of the spatial elements with status visualization representing the received status information of an associated space node.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one spatial element represents at least one selected from the group consisting of an enclosed area, a portion of an enclosed area, a room, a hallway, and a staircase.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein each space node comprises space type identifying information;

wherein when a pointer is hovered over a spatial element, the user interface displays the space type identifying information of the space node associated with the spatial element.

33. A system for on-demand rendering of a three-dimensional building management system visualization of a building comprising:

a database configured for storing geometry elements, spatial elements, and a plurality of spatial structures, wherein the geometry elements define three-dimensional geometrical representation of a building'"'"'s structure, wherein the spatial elements define three-dimensional representation of spaces in the building, wherein the geometry elements are mapped to spatial elements, wherein the spatial elements are associated with respective space nodes that identify the spaces located within the building, wherein the space nodes are associated with respective electronic devices installed within the spaces in the building, wherein each spatial structure defines at least a portion of a floor of the building and is associated with a group of horizontal aggregation of spatial elements, wherein the plurality of spatial structures are organized hierarchically from a bottom floor value to a top floor value;

at least one processor in communication with the one or more electronic devices comprising a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

selectively recalling the geometry elements and the spatial elements from the database;

rendering a three dimensional building visualization of the building via a user interface, wherein the three-dimensional building visualization comprises a status information visualization of at least one electronic device, wherein the user interface comprises an up floor selection;

receiving a request to render floor N via the user interface upon receiving a selection of the up floor selection;

checking whether a floor counter is less than the top floor value;

when the floor counter is less than the top floor, incrementing the floor counter by 1 and re-rendering the three-dimensional building visualization to display substantially a plan view of the floor level corresponding to the incremented floor counter value; and

when the floor counter is not less than the top floor value, not re-rendering three-dimensional building visualization.

34. A system for on-demand rendering of a three-dimensional building management system visualization of a building comprising:

a sensor blaster comprising a sensor trigger;

a plurality of electronic devices each comprising a sensor and configured for transmitting a sensor trigger signal in response to a trigger of the sensor using the sensor blaster;

a database configured for storing geometry elements and spatial elements, wherein the geometry elements define three-dimensional geometrical representation of a building'"'"'s structure, wherein the spatial elements define three-dimensional representation of spaces in the building, wherein the geometry elements are mapped to spatial elements, wherein the spatial elements are associated with respective space nodes identifying the spaces located within the building, wherein the space nodes are associated with respective electronic devices installed within the spaces in the building; and

at least one processor in communication with the one or more electronic devices comprising a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

selectively recalling the geometry elements and the spatial elements from the database;

rendering a three dimensional building visualization of the building via a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured for allowing a user to select a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization by clicking directly on the spatial element;

performing a discovery process to discover electronic devices connected to a local area network within the building;

receiving a sensor trigger signal from an electronic device of the discovered electronic devices;

receiving a selection from a user of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

associating the selected spatial element with the electronic device from which the sensor trigger signal was received; and

storing the association in the database;

wherein the three-dimensional building visualization comprises a status information visualization of at least one electronic device.

35. A system for on-demand rendering of a three-dimensional building management system visualization of a building comprising:

a plurality of electronic devices each comprising at least one commissioning mode button and configured for transmitting a button trigger signal in response to a trigger of the commissioning mode button;

a database configured for storing geometry elements and spatial elements, wherein the geometry elements define three-dimensional geometrical representation of a building'"'"'s structure, wherein the spatial elements define three-dimensional representation of spaces in the building, wherein the geometry elements are mapped to spatial elements, wherein the spatial elements are associated with respective space nodes that identify the spaces located within the building, wherein the space nodes are associated with respective electronic devices installed within the spaces in the building; and

at least one processor in communication with the one or more electronic devices comprising a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

selectively recalling the geometry elements and the spatial elements from the database;

rendering a three dimensional building visualization of the building via a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured for allowing a user to select a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization by clicking directly on the spatial element;

performing a discovery process to discover electronic devices connected to a local area network within the building;

receiving a button trigger signal from an electronic device of the discovered electronic devices;

receiving a selection of a spatial element from the three-dimensional building visualization;

associating the selected spatial element with the electronic device from which the button trigger signal was received; and

storing the association in the database;

wherein the three-dimensional building visualization comprises a status information visualization of at least one electronic device.